A Dark and Stormy Day
by abiholmes97
Summary: Anthony faces his first storm.


A Dark and Stormy Day.

Having a child is one of the best experiences life can give you. There are so many things you get to share together. Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Other's make you cringe. Some are wonderful and magical and ones that you will treasure forever.

For as long as I had been a mum, I had been waiting for the day when Anthony would be old enough to experience his first thunderstorms. I personally love them! Whenever there is a storm, you will find me in front of the window cross-legged, watching it, cup of tea in hand. I have been like that for as long as I can remember. I can vividly remember my mum telling me that thunder was some dear departed relative bowling or playing skittles. Then when I started secondary school, thunder was God farting. If my parents had not found me again, I would be telling Anthony that thunder was his grandparents bowling or playing skittles.

The day I had been waiting for finally arrived one humid day in June. Anthony was now three years old. We had been out shopping (Dan was at work) and had just got home as the torrential rain began. Anthony ran straight at me, a look of fear in his eyes as the rain pounded on the porch roof. I smiled and picked him up, leaving the shopping in the porch. We went and sat in the living room where I calmed him down. I left him watching Captain America and went to sort the shopping out. I was just putting some crisps on top of the cupboard when I saw something like a flash. I shrugged it off thinking that I had blinked. Then I heard a faint rumble. I put what I was doing down and went to check on Anthony. He was playing with his Star Wars playset and hadn't heard a thing. I went to phone Dan to check how he was doing when there was another flash of lightening. I decided that could wait and I went and sat in the living room.

"Mummy?" asked Anthony, looking up at me.

"Yes?"

"Can you play with me?"

I slid off the sofa. "Who do you want me to be?"

Anthony thought for a minute. "A dalek!" he said, handing me a Dalek toy.

"Awesome!" I said taking it off him.

"And I'm Spiderman!" he said smiling widely.

I smiled. A dalek and Spiderman. Original. As we were playing, a rumble of thunder was heard in the distance. Anthony was too busy playing to notice. The other thing was that with living so close to London we were used to hearing planes and sometimes that sounded like thunder.

The rain continued to pound outside but Anthony was too engrossed in introducing 'The Avengers' to 'Doctor Who'. Eventually, I had to break up the party and get him some lunch.  
However as I was microwaving some spaghetti hoops, there was a massive flash of lightening followed almost immediately by a crack of thunder. I myself jumped out of my skin and ran into the living room to find Anthony. He was sat in the living room, frozen in one position looking at me. My heart went out to him. He had no idea what was going on. I have to admit, I almost laughed.

"Mummy?" he said, warily as the sky flashed again. I went over and sat by him.

"It's ok sweetie." I said, taking him into my arms. "It's just a storm."

"What's a storm?" he asked, looking up at me.

I went to answer but then the thunder came again and he squealed and buried himself in my chest. I calmed him down again.

"A storm," I began, "Is a change in the sky that usually brings lots of rain and thunder and lightning."

He thought about this for a minute and then said, "Mummy, what's thunder?"

I sighed. How do you explain the concept of thunder to a three year old? I couldn't exactly tell him that thunder was the sound of lightning but because light travels faster than sound, we hear it later than we see it.

"Thunder is just your Aunty Lizzie playing skittles in heaven." I said.

"Who is Aunty Lizzie?" he asked.

I looked at him. Had I not told him about his Aunty Lizzie? I shifted him on my knee.

"Aunty Lizzie was your Uncle Hamish's sister but she became very ill when she was quite young. So now she's in the sky, watching us and playing skittles."

Anthony thought about this for a minute. "So rain is…"

"When she leaves her shower on!" I said quickly.

Anthony smiled. Just then, there was another big flash, followed almost immediately by a rumble of thunder. Anthony buried himself into me again.

"Mummy?" he asked after a while. "If Thunder is Aunty Lizzie and rain is her shower, what's the flashes?" he asked.

"The flashes are called lightning and it's just charges of electricity in the sky." I said.

He looked blankly at me. I had to think. How could I relate this to a three year old boy? Then it came to me!

"It's Obi- Wan- Kenobi and Luke Skywalker playing light sabers!" I thought.

"Really?" he asked, eyes open in amazement.

"Really." I replied smiling at him.

"Cool!" he said jumping up and going to the window. I followed him just in case.

"Anthony?" I said. He turned to look at me. "Do you know another cool thing you can do in a storm?"

He shook his head.

"If you count between the flash and the sound, you can work out how close the storm is."

He looked at me incredulously. So I proved it to him. When the next flash appeared I counted; "One elephant, two elephants…" and then the rumble happened.

I looked at Anthony and told him, "The storm is two miles away."

"Why elephants?" he asked, looking puzzled.

"I don't know." I said honestly, "That's just what I was told as a child."

"Oh."

So for the rest of the afternoon, we sat and watched the storm pass over our heads. I obviously got up and got him some lunch but otherwise we were sat in front of the French windows. Now that he had some way of understanding what a storm was he was comfortable to sit and watch it.

The storm finally cleared around 5 in the evening. Anthony asked for some Doctor Who on so I put the DVD of the TV movie in and left him to watch it. I then went to the kitchen to start preparing dinner. We were having spaghetti bolognaise so it was relatively simple to do. Hopefully Dan would be home for dinner.

I had just sat Anthony down with his dinner and was just about to fetch mine when the door opened. In walked Daniel, looking very tired but with a smile on his face. I walked down the hall and into his arms.

"Hey, you." He said, tapping my nose.

"Hey." I said softly, kissing him gently.

"How was your day?" he asked as we moved back into the kitchen.

"Busy." I replied. "You missed Anthony's first storm."

"Oh really?" he asked, looking disappointed.

"Yeah. But I'm sure there will be plenty more."

"Where is he?" Dan asked.

"In the dining room, eating his dinner."

Daniel looked behind me. "What have we got?"

"Spaghetti." I replied.

"Mmm, nice!" and we made our way with food to sit with Anthony.

"Daddy!" he said, as he saw Daniel walk in. "Daddy, guess what?"

"What?" asked Daniel, sitting down.

"We saw a storm today!" he said excitedly.

"Really?" Dan asked, "Were you scared?"

Anthony nodded. "But Mummy helped me!"

Dan looked at me. "How?"

"She told me that the thunder was Aunty Lizabeth playing skittles and that the rain was her shower. Oh and that lightning was Obi-Wan-Kenobi and Luke Skywalker playing light sabers in the sky!" he rambled eyes shining brightly.

"Wow!" said Dan, "That's so cool."

That night when we were in bed, Dan turned to me and said, "Really, Star Wars. That's where you went?"

I gave him a look. "I thought on my feet ok?"

Dan smiled and kissed me as I snuggled back into him. "I love you Mrs Holmes."

"I love you too, Mr Holmes." I said kissing him back and closing my eyes.

THE END


End file.
